Fujitsu dispute settled after strike triggers U-turn

Telecoms & Financial Services June 13 2016

Members at Fujitsu’s plant in Antrim have voted to accept a CWU-brokered deal under which management have agreed that all those declining a voluntary redundancy package will be relocated to another Fujitsu site in Belfast.

Meanwhile, those opting to leave will receive significant enhancements to the statutory redundancy terms originally proposed – a package that the CWU had always insisted was grossly insufficient.

Staff opting for voluntary redundancy will now receive enhanced payments to the statutory terms proposed plus a bonus for managing the transition of work to Belfast and a further site in Birmingham.

Management’s biggest concession, however, involves the guarantee that all those choosing to continue working for Fujitsu, following the Antrim site’s closure in September, will be able to continue in the same roles at the company’s Belfast site.

Originally the company had said the number of relocation opportunities would be capped at a maximum of nine.

Assistant secretary John East told the Voice: “From the outset the CWU argued that position was utterly unacceptable, because it would certainly have meant that a compulsory redundancy situation would have existed – crossing one of the union’s most fundamental red lines.

“We argued strongly that to close a profitable site in an area of high unemployment was bad enough, and that the £300,000 per annum savings Fujitsu will be making as a result of its site rationalisation means that the guarantee of alternative jobs in Belfast and a decent redundancy package for those choosing to go was the very least that loyal employees should be offered.”

With the company refusing to budge, however, CWU members delivered a 94% vote in favour of strike action. While subsequent negotiations brought some progress on the issue of redeployment opportunities that lifted the immediate threat of compulsory redundancy, that industrial action mandate was put into effect on June 1 on the basis there were still no guarantees onredeployment and the redundancy terms were still insufficient.

As well as mounting a day-long picket at the Antrim site that day, the CWU also leafleted employees at Fujitsu’s Belfast site to explain the reasons the union was making a stand.

While the striking employees returned to work on Monday June 4, they solidly maintained a work-to-rule which was only lifted on June 10 after CWU members voted to accept the company’s revised offer on redeployment and redundancy payments.

John East concludes: “It’s fair to say that the successful outcome of this dispute can be attributed entirely to the way in which CWU members stuck together through thick and thin, standing up for fair treatment of all of their colleagues regardless of whether they personally had decided to remain working for Fujitsu or whether they had decided to take redundancy.

“If ever an example was needed that there’s strength in unity, and that collective action by members of a recognised trade union can successfully challenge the plans of even multinational companies, this is a great case in point.

“We trust that message will not have been lost on Fujitsu employees in the unrecognised Belfast site who will shortly be welcoming into their ranks a sizeablecontingent of loyal CWU members who know first hand the benefits of trade union membership and who will continue to be represented by the CWU.

“Over the coming months we will certainly be stepping up our recruitment activity in Belfast – but in the meantime our Antrim members can congratulate themselves on a well won victory.”